118 THK ELECTIONS. 



character be tolerated by the Whigs ? God forbid, for the respecta- 

 bility of public character in England, that every member of the 

 Whigs should be deluded by the fantasies of maudling candour; 

 that every member of the Tories who, at least, with all their errors, 

 have conformed to all the principles of their profession should 

 evince the gracious pliancy of Sir Robert Peel that every prelate on 

 the bench should manifest the shrewd accommodation of the pam- 

 phleteering Dr. Philpotts ! Such a shameless dereliction of decorum 

 in the seats of legislation would do more to weaken the important 

 influence of parliament, and stimulate the coarse audacity of demo- 

 cratic turbulence, than all the open efforts of conservatism against the 

 liberal endeavours of reform. But, in the former instance, should 

 dreams of the restored ascendancy of irresponsible misrule inspire the 

 ministry with stratagems to mar or to defer the watchful expectations 

 of the people however dexterously planned may be the treacherous 

 devices of frustration however numerously acquiesced in by the 

 people's representatives however formally promoted by the peers of 

 parliament if even sanctioned by that supreme authority, which 

 theory declares infallible the result will be a fierce convulsion, co- 

 extensive with the British realms; and commons, lords, and kings 

 will be admonished by the shock. 



How strange is the perversity among the monarchs, aristocracies, 

 and courts of modern Europe ! History develops its examples and 

 events, in characters of bloodshed and calamity, in simple truths 

 that no imagination, wild or fertile as it may be, can surpass. They 

 are beheld, believed, lamented, and unheeded. The memorable re- 

 volution of the French began beneath the reign of a beneficent and 

 amiable king. He was young and incorrupt, and willing to be formed 

 by just but novel principles of government. He approved the vir- 

 tuous Turgot, who arose amidst a nation, vitiated by the splendours 

 of a courtly despotism, at an sera, when servility complied with the 

 oppression of a prodigal and dissipated court. From the monarch to 

 the peasant, the population was a graduated scale of slavery. The 

 church was an asylum for the dissolute and indolent ; immorality was 

 fostered by the riches of religion ; the active zeal of piety was visible 

 among that portion of the clergy only, to which the vice of reverend 

 voluptuaries could spare from their enormous sinecures, a pittance 

 hardly adequate to the necessities of life. The sensuality of the 

 priesthood was conspicuous at court ; and the downfall of the mo- 

 narchy was hastened by the ministers of redemption. The frugal vir- 

 tue, the prospective mind of Turgut alarmed the satellites of royalty, 

 who beheld the abolition of their abusive privileges with the earnest 

 purpose of an honest minister. His conscience prompted him to mi- 

 tigate the burthens of the jpoor ; he found the rustic classes of the 

 French depressed by worse than feudal bondage ; he attempted their 

 emancipation. His measures were substantial and effective. His 

 sincerity despised the pomp of empty theory. His benevolence was 

 practical and spacious, discriminating and progressive. The king 

 had listened to the admonitions of his wise and virtuous minister. 

 But the inveteracy of corruption was stronger than the efforts of re- 

 form, and the monarch and the minister were overwhelmed in the 



